No Man’s Sky fans have been given an enormous update to the universe that adds more to explore, more to do, and more to build. The procedural nature of the game allows the developer to deliver an experience that is unique wherever players choose go and one that is truly infinite. This works for them most part, but some players have sound such an experience can become stale after a while.
The issue with procedural generation is that the result is only as good as the pieces available. Just as a box full of similar Lego Bricks can only become so many different structures, so too can a game full of similar animal, world, and ship pieces only have so many variations. There will always be a point when players will notice that they have seen a similar element to the world somewhere else before. This can break the immersion of the experience, and in a game about exploration, being constantly stimulated by new things is a must.
Because of this fact, No Man’s Sky fans who are in it purely for the exploration may benefit from having a few games on the side that can provide them with a more curated experience, one that is guaranteed to leave them in awe over the never-before-seen discoveries. One such game is Journey to The Savage Planet. Here’s why No Man’s Sky players may want to take a look at this sleeper hit from early this year.
What Is Journey to The Savage Planet?
Journey to The Savage Planet is a first-person science fiction adventure created by Typhoon Studios. The game centers around a recruit (the player) of the interplanetary company Kindred Aerospace. The player is tasked with exploring a brand-new planet and determining if the location is fit for habitation by mankind. Along the way, players will encounter some of the most creative aliens to be featured in a video game this generation, along with a beautiful set of environments to carefully traverse. Players must catalog these creatures and avoid being killed by them from time to time.
Journey to The Savage Planet is filled with cheeky humor, sarcastic characters, weird encounters, and fast-paced action. Players are joined by either another player in coop mode or by their trusted AI companion that has a striking resemblance to a tiny floating Claptrap from Borderlands. These companions can aid with obstacles or just be a bit of cynical moral support throughout the harrowing journey through the world.
What Journey to The Savage Planet Offers No Man's Sky Fans
Journey to The Savage Planet matches the visual tone of No Man’s Sky very well. No Man’s Sky was inspired by science fiction novel covers from the 1960s, and as such is filled with colorful planets and ships rather than static metallic ships that are found in most of today’s science fiction fare. Journey to The Savage Planet mimics this style but drives up the saturation to an insane degree. Everything in the game is colorfully rendered and incredibly detailed when compared to No Man’s Sky. The game was built by hand from the ground up, so everything feels more polished and deliberate.
This attention to detail extends from the world itself to the creatures that are encountered on the planet. These are some strange animals in Journey to the Savage Planet, to say the least. No Man’s Sky creatures tend to have a few predictable action loops that are shared among all creatures. In Journey to The Savage Planet, creatures behave in dramatically different ways depending on what the player is doing and where they are found on the map. Players who are looking to see something perfectly new will get a major kick out of Journey to The Savage Planet.
The game also features more action-oriented combat. One criticism of No Man’s Sky is that the combat can feel stale when outside of a ship. No Man’s Sky was not built to be about shooting aliens, so the focus was placed on other things. Journey to The Savage Planet has a healthy balance between great combat and exploration. Players are only given a single gun throughout the experience, but this gun can be upgraded to do a multitude of things by the end. A good amount of the alien encounters are hostile, so players will need to stay on their toes if they want to survive here.
Boss battles are one thing that No Man’s Sky players have been hoping for that so far hasn’t been added to the game. This would likely be a difficult thing to do while still maintaining the procedural nature of the game, however its addition would be a massive improvement on the core gameplay loop. Journey to The Savage Planet is filled with crazy and creative boss encounters that force players to not only think of their feet, but to get creative in their strategies. These boss designs are also just as well-crafted as everything else in the game, and range from wildly cute to deeply disturbing in nature. This type of rare creature encounter mimics certain recent additions to No Man’s Sky such as the sandworms, while being designed around specific combat styles and solutions.
Lastly, the story of Journey to The Savage Planet is a more direct and streamlined experience. In No Man’s Sky, players are tasked with travelling around the entire universe to uncover small pieces of the story as they go. Some players may prefer a break from the mysterious slow delivery, and thus will get a kick out of Journey to The Savage Planet’s witty storytelling. Everything in the game talks directly to the player and makes them feel important to the overall story. In the end, the joy of exploration is at the core of both games, but Journey to The Savage Planet does this with a larger flair for the comedic.
Over all, players of No Man’s Sky would really enjoy a more direct approach to science-fiction world building. Journey to The Savage Planet is a shorter experience and appeals to the same audience of No Man’s Sky in a smaller, but denser, package. Maybe one day there will be a game that is just as large as No Man’s Sky, but also as detailed as Journey to The Savage Planet.